Recipe: Kimchi Jigae

Hola dearies :)

While I love Korean food and Kimchi, I've never thought of cooking Kimchi Jigae at home, mainly cos I don't really trust the kimchi they sell in supermarkets. But thanks to a close friend, Evelyn, she gave us a container of home made kimchi (yes, she made it herself! I'm gonna try to get her to pass me the recipe :p)! So I was at Paradigm Mall this afternoon with le bb cos I wanted to look at the Sephora brushes (I wanted to get the crease eyeshadow brush, but they're freaking exp), and then we just decided on the spot to cook some Kimchi Jigae for dinner tonight since we had some kimchi in the fridge.

So we googled the recipe and set off to Tesco to get the ingredients. The recipe we found is to feed approx 4-5 pax, so we cut it down to size :p Here is my version, and hope you guys like it!


You will need:

2-3 Cups Kimchi and Juice, chopped
1 medium sized Big Onion, sliced
3-4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
200grams Pork belly (approx, it's entirely up to you)
1 tbsp sugar
1tbsp chilli powder
1 tsp chilli flakes (approx)
Tofu (cubed)
sesame oil, salt and seasoning to taste
Vision Pot (or any other pot will do)

The recipe is actually very simple.

First you get out your Vision Pot. I absolutely love my Vision Pot, cos I feel that if you cook soup with this pot, the meat is just more tender than if you cook in other pots. Le bb says it's absurd, but I can taste the difference. So this pot is like, my absolute favourite pot that I swear by. I personally think every single household should at least have a Vision Pot in their house.

But I digress :p

After you've got your pot ready, pour in the chopped kimchi and juice, and stir awhile until you see the juice bubbling a little. Then, add in all other ingredients except the tofu, sesame oil, salt, and seasoning. Add in water over the top until it's just covering the ingredients and stir slowly.

Now, adding in of water is totally up to your preference. If you want the soup to be watery, you can add in more water, or if you want the consistency to be a little thicker, then just reduce the amount of water you add in. Same goes for the chilli flakes and powder. If you want it a little spicier, then by all means, add more! :)

Close the lid of the pot and let it simmer. about 10 minutes on medium high heat, and another 15 minutes on low heat. In between, you can add in a little bit of salt and seasoning to taste, and continue to let it simmer.

At the last step before turning off the fire, add in the tofu. So after you add in the tofu, let it simmer for about another 5 minutes, stirring carefully so the tofu doesn't break off. Before serving, add a dash of sesame oil to bring out the aroma and taste.

Pork can be replaced with tuna or chicken, but I prefer it with pork :p Again, preference is entirely up to you.

Aaaaaaaand you're done!

Scoop up some rice and there you have it, Kimchi Jigae to satisfy that tastebud of yours!

Seriously speaking, I'm actually quite proud of the Kimchi Jigae I cooked, it's amazing! I will definitely cook some more Kimchi Jigae with the leftover kimchi in the fridge :D

Oh and I didn't add in the sesame oil cos I forgot, but it tasted just fine for me, so I'm not too fussed about that :p

So how did you like it? Hope you will try it out and let me know how it turned out!

Til the next time, stay beautiful!

xoxo,

yin